General Care Discussion :: size question.

[Nimz]

my turtle is about 2 inches his tank is in perfect condition and at the perfect temp. he looks healthy. he started to have slight pyramiding but it's taken care of now with a new diet. but at a year and a half old arent RES's supposed to be bigger then that? is it because of the smaller tank that he's in right now thats causing the slow growth? I have him in a 20 gallon at the moment, i plan on getting something bigger right away but if he isn't growing like normal i want to take him to a vet before hand.

whats your opinion?

[mikee]

nim -- If you turtle is about 2 inches you should be feeding him once a day with a well balanced diet with lot of calcium. Your water temp and your basking temp is important also. Basking using uva and uvb lighting is very important is shell growth. m.

[worldpeace]

The size of the tank is perfect for him at the moment, although you should think about getting another tank soon (remember, you should have 10 gallons of water per inch of turtle).

I don't think this is a "run to the vet" situation. Some older adopted turtles that have lived in horrible conditions as babies may have stunned growth because of that, but in your situation this doesn't seem to be the case.

I would recommend you carefully read over the website www.redearslider.com and the forum and find out especially what and how much to feed your turtle.

[wiccabrat]

They don't all grow exactly the same. You can have 2 turtles who hatch together in the same tank, eating the same thing and are two different sizes. As long as you're doing everything right don't worry. He could be a runt, or just slow getting started. They DO NOT grow to tank size so that's not stunting him at all.

[worldpeace]

If their size depended on their enclosure size I can assume that everyone would keep their turtles in a 5-10 gallon tank . But it's just a lie some sellers feed to customers to make them want a cute little one inch turtle that supposedly doesn't grow any larger if kept in a small container.

[rsour24]

i personally like bigger turtles, like dont get me wrong i love my little 2" guy but i cant wait for him to get bigger

[felix1318]

me too, bigger turtles are cooler for me XD

[worldpeace]

I'm more of a small-is-cute type of person